Make a Simple Syrup with Raspberries and Stevia

This latest recipe is due to the fact that I LOVE raspberry syrup in my Starbucks green tea frappes. Since I am giving up sugary Starbucks frappes in lieu of more healthy and less expensive drinks, I wondered if I could make a sugarless simple syrup to pour into my own green tea. It works! Follow the instructions below and you too will have a delicious syrup to keep on hand for whenever you need a flavor boost for your drinks. Just a bit of the berry juice makes a beautifully flavored water too.

boiling berries to make simple syrup

Into a small pot, add about a cup of raspberries to two cups of water. Any berry mix , including frozen berries, works great. Bring to a roiling boil and stir until you see that the berries are breaking down and the water is getting really saturated with berry juice. This will only take about five to ten minutes. If I am going to use the berries for something pretty like a parfait, I only boil for about five minutes. The delicate raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries will break down really fast. If I want all of the juice out of them for a stronger flavor and I don’t care if the berries break down a lot, then I boil them for a bit longer – like ten minutes or so.

Strain the berries to separate the juice from them

If You are going to make jam with the berries, pour off about a cup of juice to keep for your drink mixer. Stir in a packet of Stevia (or sweetener of your choice). I’m not kidding when I say that a little Stevia goes a long way so start with a small amount and then add to taste. Store in the refrigerator until you make your next cup of tea or sparkling water. I only make enough to last a week. I know for a fact that it will keep at least that long when stored in the fridge. (In the photo above, I have added the berries back to my juice in preparation for making sugarless jam. That post will be up next.)

Tomorrow I’m going to post the second batch of goodness with the boiled berries. I’ll tell you how to make jam with a very tiny amount of sweetener. ANY sweetener. You no longer need a full two cups of sugar in the pot.

If you have boiled a longer time and the berries are no longer pretty, they still have a lot of good fiber left. Don’t throw the pulp away! Transfer the cooked berry pulp to your blender so that you can make a smoothie when you are cleaning up the kitchen. Don’t forget to throw in some protein powder. You’ve gotta have some energy to clean.